Best Buy and Future Shop, which are different brands owned by the same company, are investigating the incidents.

But according to Vancouver resident Mark Sandhu, who found clay instead of a tablet computer in his holiday gifts, neither the retailer nor police were interested in the case until he contacted a consumers' rights program on CTV.

Sandhu said Future Shop staff didn't believe him when he returned to the store with his "clay iPad 2." Nor were police interested in the matter, Sandhu says.

"Maybe the way I was dressed, I don't know," Sandhu said. "[The store manager] made me feel like I'm trying to scam them out of $700. I was the one getting scammed."

The store changed its tune after CTV began investigating.

"Customers don't expect to receive this kind of product from Future Shop, so it's a very serious matter and something we are addressing right away for anyone who has been impacted," spokesperson Elliott Chun told the media.